Key facts
- Park Pan-joon, president of the Korea Military Academy Alumni Association, said the plan is not a merger but a closure of each academy.
- Park questioned whether abolishing the separate academies is the only way to maintain expertise and pursue integration.
- Ministry spokesperson Chung Binna said the ministry is supplementing the plan to foster officers for future warfare.
- Chung declined to say whether the government is reviewing a different approach to the integration.
- The ministry was considering a tentatively named National Military Academy at Jaundae in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul.
The alumni groups of South Korea's Army, Navy and Air Force academies reiterated their opposition to the government's push to integrate the academies into a single institution at a meeting with Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul on November 9, 2026, and called for the plan to be scrapped, Yonhap reported.
The Lee Jae Myung administration says a single military academy would enhance joint interoperability and address personnel shortages in the military. "We think the government-led plan to build an (integrated) military academy is not a merger, but a plan to close down the school (of each military academies)," Park Pan-joon, president of the Korea Military Academy Alumni Association, said at the meeting. Park also asked whether abolishing the respective academies is the only way to maintain expertise and seek integration.
Kang hosted the meeting with the alumni association leaders to gather public opinion before announcing the final integration plan. The government had initially planned to disclose a detailed road map in October 2026, but the announcement was pushed back after strong backlash from graduates and alumni groups, who said the move would weaken the individual capabilities of each military branch. Alumni groups staged a rally at the National Assembly on July 8, 2026, in protest.
The ministry was considering establishing the tentatively named National Military Academy at Jaundae, a compound of military training and education facilities in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul, for a full four-year education program. Kang has hinted at partly revising the plan since taking office in September 2026, while expressing his commitment to carrying on with the integration itself.
"The defense ministry is currently supplementing the plan to establish the National Military Academy to foster elite officers to lead future warfare," ministry spokesperson Chung Binna told a press briefing. She declined to elaborate on whether the government was reviewing a different approach, which reportedly involves cadets receiving education at the newly built academy for two years in between the four-year school year while leaving each military academy intact.